The Children who turned blue without cabbage
In 1951, The Lancet reported the odd case of siblings who would turn blue unless they regularly ate cabbage. It turned out that the kids suffered from a genetically caused deficiency of ascorbic acid. Knowing this freed them from a lifetime of having to eat cabbage. Though they had to take ascorbic acid supplements instead.
I'm pretty sure that the relevant Lancet article is "Familial Idiopathic Methæmoglobinæmia" (Apr 28, 1951), although I haven't been able to find a non-paywalled copy of it to confirm this.
I'm pretty sure that the relevant Lancet article is "Familial Idiopathic Methæmoglobinæmia" (Apr 28, 1951), although I haven't been able to find a non-paywalled copy of it to confirm this.
Santa Ana Register - Aug 26, 1951
Comments
Don't they eat apples and oranges in this house? Or is Dad so tired of his vegetable job that their diet consist of bangers and mash?
Posted by Yudith on 12/26/24 at 08:10 AM
Apples are actually fairly low in vitamin C, and Oranges in postwar Britain would have been an expensive luxury - not available enough for normal people to eat on a regular basis - heck with rationing still in effect they may not have been physically available often enough to matter.
Posted by Eric Gagen on 12/29/24 at 08:50 AM
Bell peppers, then? Or lemons? Fresh parsley? Currants? Cranberries?
Posted by Yudith on 12/30/24 at 12:52 PM
They're English. The obvious answer is Lime(y)s.
Currants, cranberries, fresh parsley? In post-war England? No.
But yeah, any reasonable amount of vegetables that aren't beans, old potatoes, or turnips would have done. Rose hips are famously full of it, and dog roses are native to all of North-West Europe. We used to drink a cordial made of them.
Currants, cranberries, fresh parsley? In post-war England? No.
But yeah, any reasonable amount of vegetables that aren't beans, old potatoes, or turnips would have done. Rose hips are famously full of it, and dog roses are native to all of North-West Europe. We used to drink a cordial made of them.
Posted by Richard Bos on 01/04/25 at 09:01 AM
Category: Vegetables | 1950s | Disease